“Caged Bird” written by Maya Angelou in 1968 announces to the world her frustration of racial inequality and the longing for freedom. She seeks to create sentiment in the reader toward the caged bird plight, and draw compassion for the imprisoned creature. (Davis) Angelou was born as “Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St Louis, Missouri”. “Caged Bird” was first published in the collection Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? 1983. (Davis) “Caged Bird” is the poem which lead to Angelou’s autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” 1970, (Davis) and in 1979 was made into a major motion picture. (IMDB) This poem addresses the feelings of isolation and segregation which allows the reader to travel the path of Angelou during the social injustice …show more content…
Lines one through seven define the free bird as one that “floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays” (Angelou) this is a representation of freedom and joy. The second and third stanza lines, eight through fourteen defines the caged bird that “stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage” (Angelou) where these words reference isolation and despair compared to the freedom in stanza one. These lines create a visual response of the bird’s environments. The third stanza is repeated at the end of the poem for prominence as it reflects the two birds are so different. The last line of the poem is “for the caged bird sings for freedom” (Angelou) this tells us that the caged bird yearns to be like the free bird. Angelou uses several descriptive images for the reader to be able to envision her words: bird, winds, floats and sky for freedom because the free bird has power, as “he soars in the sky” (Angelou) and clipped wings, tied feet and cage for confinement because the caged bird is oppressed as “caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown.”(Angelou) The caged bird never loses hope that he will one day be free, so he